We finished our adorable Trick and Treat Bag! In fact, it already saw some “action”at a fun community event over the weekend, but we can’t wait to go trick or treating with it again tonight.

I used the long tails on his eyes, nose, and mouth to sew the facial features onto the bag. Usually, finishing work like this isn’t my favorite part of a project (I’d much rather just continue crocheting!), but this little guy stitched up in a flash and I had a great time finishing him up. Between making this cute bag and trick or treating with my daughter, this truly is a happy Halloween!

Stephani’s Pumpkin Treat Bag

Leonora’s Mummy Treat Bag

We’d love to see pictures of your Trick and Treat Bags. Stephanie and Leonora shared their bags with us on our Facebook page, and they are both so fun and fabulous! We love seeing what our friends are up to, so feel free to share pictures with us on Facebook or email them to us at mail@loveofcrochet.com. We here at Love of Crochet wish you a safe and happy Halloween!

Have you picked up a copy of Megan Kreiner’s book, Crochet a Zoo (Martingale, 2013), featured in our Holiday Issue of Love of Crochet? We are simply smitten with the adorable animal patterns she designs. In fact, we have excerpted her Penguins pattern in our Holiday Issue as well!

Pick up a copy of Megan’s book, as well as a copy of the Holiday Issue of Love of Crochet, for loads of fun-to-make patterns. And you can look forward to seeing more of Megan’s patterns in our upcoming issues. We can’t wait to see what she comes up with next!

Halloween gives us the opportunity to use our crafting skills in creative and unusual ways. DIY costumes are always so unique and fun to make, but here at the Love of Knitting and Love of Crochet office, we want our costumes to represent one of our favorite things: yarn! When we started searching for yarn-related Halloween costumes, we found several ideas that are too fun not to share.

For the kid (or kid at heart) who doesn’t mind a bulky costume, this idea is sure to be a hit! We all love the real deal, so why wouldn’t we love a cute ball of yarn costume?

The possibilities are endless when you have a yarn wig! Raggedy Ann and Rapunzel are just two of the adorable costumes you could make with this versatile idea.

This video tutorial for the Merry Monsters Hats will walk you through the process of crocheting these adorable accessories. They make great, crafty costumes and keep you toasty on a crisp night of trick or treating.

A beard can help you transform into any number of characters! Instantly become a viking or gnome, and keep your cheeks warm if you live in a chilly area.

Spaghetti and meatballs have never been so cute! Grab a bowl, some scrap yarn, and make some pompom meatballs to get this look.

For a fashionable costume with a spooky twist, this spiderweb skirt is a comfortable and festive option for your office Halloween party.

Finally, you can’t go trick or treating without a cute bag to hold all of your goodies. Trick and Treat Bags from the Fall Issue of Love of Crochet stitch up quickly, so you still have time to make one for all of your little ghouls and goblins!

We want to know – which costume here is your favorite? Have you seen any other fun costumes using yarn?

We have now finished all the pieces for our Pumpkin Treat Bag! Our darling jack-o-lantern’s facial features are ready to sew on, and we’ve crocheted the leaves and swirl to add an extra special touch. In fact, I thought the swirl was so cute that I couldn’t help but make two of them. You can see them below next to my spooky witch hat.

I went ahead and attached the leaves and swirls to my pumpkin, and the facial features will be next. I plan on attaching his eyes, nose, and mouth later this evening so I’ll have it ready in time for our Halloween festivities over the weekend. However, I’m going to wait and show you my finished project on Halloween day because I think sharing pictures of our bags is the perfect way to celebrate.

We’ve already seen one adorable finished Pumpkin Treat Bag on our Facebook page, and we are so happy that Stephani shared it with us. Has anyone else finished one of the Trick-and-Treat Bags from our Fall Issue? You can post pictures on our Facebook page or email them to us at mail@loveofcrochet.com. We can’t wait to see them!

We love how knitting, crocheting, and crafting in general have taken off in recent years. Specialty yarns and craft supplies have become easier to locate, and perhaps more importantly, crafting buddies have become easier to find as well. We definitely believe in the idea of “the more, the merrier” when it comes to creativity and the fun that goes along with making a project by hand.

Picture courtesy of Nick Ferrari

Bonnie Rochman wrote an interesting article for Parade earlier this month. In “Handmade in America: Crafting’s Comeback,” she talks about how the popularity of crafting has changed during our history.

“Craft making is on a pendulum,” says Garth Johnson, associate professor of art at California’s College of the Redwoods. “Recently there’s been an impulse to push back against everything being slick and computer-designed, to connect with other people, and to learn skills passed down from other generations.”

She admits that there are tons of reasons crafting has become more popular in our modern world, but we love this idea about creating something tangible instead of always working virtually from a computer.

…So much of what we do in our daily lives doesn’t result in a concrete, finished product. “We spend so much time today typing on a keyboard, manipulating a mouse, and living virtually that we long to use our hands to create something tangible,” says Monica Moses, editor in chief of American Craft magazine. For many, anything less doesn’t really feel productive.

We’d love to hear from you, and we truly encourage you to click through and read Bonnie Rochman’s full article! Why do you think crafting has become so popular lately?

We hope you enjoyed the monthly free block patterns from our 2012/2013 Year of Yarn, as well as the weekly yarn reviews in our 52 Weeks of Yarn. We’ve heard that many of you are in the process of sewing your blocks together to create a beautiful sampler afghan, and we’d love to see pictures of your finished project!

As we are in the process of stitching up our finished afghan, we are already thinking about next year’s free block patterns and reviews. To give us all some time to focus on our holiday crafting, we will begin our next Year of Yarn in January of 2014. We will continue to offer monthly free block patterns and weekly yarn reviews on the Love of Knitting website, but in 2014, we will feature a free crocheted block pattern every month on the Love of Crochet website as well!

We can hardly wait to share some fabulous new yarns with you in 2014. In fact, we’ll be offering sneak peeks on our Twitterpages to hold us all over until the New Year. Don’t forget to send pictures of your blocks or finished afghan to us at mail@loveofknitting.com! We love seeing what our friends are working on. Happy crafting!

We took it easy on the Pumpkin Treat Bag from our Fall Issue this week, but we did finish crocheting his eyes, nose, and mouth. Attaching the pieces later will be a breeze because I left long tails for sewing.

Now that my pumpkin’s features are really coming together, I must say – designer Ashley Briggs truly makes adorable patterns. I know my daughter will get tons of compliments on her bag this Halloween, and it has been such a fun project to crochet! How is your Trick and Treat bag coming along? Are you working on the Pumpkin, Frankenstein, or Mummy?